Despite the wolfsbane, Remus was still sore in the morning. He sat on the chair by the fire with his feet up on a pillow on the coffee table, and a cup of Ovaltine clutched in his palms. The fire burned bright and warm beside him and he wore a blanket over his lap.

It was hotter than hell in the room, though Remus was shivering. The wolfsbane apparently didn't help much with the chills.

Which was why James Potter thought himself quite funny when he came in, sat on the couch, and tossed his legs up on the coffee table beside Remus's, wearing a pair of brightly patterned swim trunks and sunglasses.

"You're such an idiot," Lily laughed, stepping over James's legs to get to the side closer to Remus. She was shaking out an additional blanket she'd just gotten out of a trunk behind the couch.

"What? I'm enjoying the fire," James said.

Lily rolled her eyes. "It isn't that hot, honestly."

But it was, honestly.

Remus smiled, "It's alright, we're both being a bit ridiculous, I suspect," he said, tugging the blanket down over his arms.

"Did somebody say ridiculous?" Sirius asked, coming down the stairs.

Lily looked up and choked on a laugh. "Sirius Ophelia Blupin!"

Sirius had put on his own pair of swim trunks - bright orange things with huge yellow flowers on them that he'd gotten in Costa Rica - and an inflatable unicorn swim ring about his waist. He wore a scuba diving mask and a snorkel was fitted to his mouth, and a pair of garish blue flippers were on his feet. He padded down the stairs carefully, as James raised his sunglasses to watch while Remus, Lily, and Peter laughed. When he'd reached the living room and stood before them all, he drew a deep breath and blew into the snorkel. A plethora of big iridescent bubbles fell from the tip of the snorkel and floated up a few feet before popping. He grinned as James clapped his hands, and took a bow.

"Bravo," James called.

Peter was laughing, too, his face red with the amusement as Sirius came in, put a beach towel across the coffee table, and shimmied out of the inflatable unicorn, setting it onto the table in the middle, and sat down in the center of it like he would do if he were floating in a pool, grinning at Remus and James.

Lily shook her head, "You two... are mental," she said pointing at James and Sirius.

Remus smiled at his husband's scrawny frame, his chest bared as he pulled a pair of sunglasses from Godric-knew-where and shoved them onto his face as he laid back so the unicorn head was a pillow. 

Lily leaned over Remus, spreading the blanket over his lap, her hair falling over her shoulder as she did, and Remus's nose twitched, catching the scent of her, and he said, "Lily, did you change your shampoo?"

"No," she said.

Sirius had pulled his glasses off to look at Remus. "I thought so, too. Doesn't it smell different?"

"Yeah, something smells different."

"Maybe they've changed an ingredient," Lily shrugged. She tucked the blanket 'round Remus's legs carefully.

Remus shrugged, "That's probably it."

"Is it bad? Should I change it?" Lily asked, concerned, looking from Sirius to Remus.

"It's not bad," Remus said, "It's just..." he looked at Sirius for support.

"Different," Sirius supplied.

"Yeah, different," Remus finished.

Lily sat down on the couch next to James. "And you really can't smell whatever it is?"

James said, "Nope. I'm not a dog, though, so..." he shrugged.

"What about you, Peter?"

Peter shook his head.

Remus said, "I know my nose is always more sensitive near to the moon. That's why the lads can't wear colorgne."

"Passes right out over some scents," nodded James.

"I wouldn't say you need to change the shampoo, though, if you like how it works," Remus shrugged. "Would you, Sirius?"

"No, it's just doesn't smell like you," he answered, putting his sunglasses back on. With a flick of his wrist, he'd made a coconut drink appear in his hand.

"How the hell did you do that?" James asked, seeing the drink.

Sirius lowered his glasses and grinned at James. "Don't you wish you knew, Potter?"

Lily still looked concerned about the shampoo and was sniffing her own lock of hair, leaning back against James, who tucked his arm 'round her shoulders, pulled her into him, and pressed his nose into her hair, taking a deep breath. "Still smells beautiful to me, Evans," he said, and he kissed the top of her head.

Sirius sipped from the ridiculously long straw he'd magicked into his drink.

Remus snugged deeper into the blankets, closing his eyes contentedly.

"When's Mum coming back from Minnie's?" Sirius asked.

"In time for dinner," James replied. "They're all coming."

"Brilliant!" Sirius said excitedly.

"Do we need anything? I can run to the market for you!" Peter offered.

"I made the rest of the roast into a stew last night and I've got bread in the oven," Lily said, shaking her head, "But thanks, Peter."

"Bread. That's what the smell is like. Bread when it's not cooked," Sirius announced. "But... sweeter."

"Dough?" Lily's brow came together with concern.

James raised an eyebrow. "You go about sniffing much uncooked bread, Padfoot?"

Sirius shrugged. He laid his head back down on the inflatable unicorn, blowing more bubbles out of his snorkel.

Later on, Peter, SIrius, and James went out back to throw a quaffle around and Remus stayed inside, comfortable as he was by the Potter's fireplace. Lily had gone to take the bread out of the oven and she came back to find Remus had put down the book he'd been reading on his lap and was staring into the fireplace with a far-off look on his face. She sat down on the couch at the end nearest to him and leaned forward against her knees. He didn't seem to notice she was there at first and after giving him a few minutes, she finally cleared her throat and he looked up, shaking himself out of whatever thoughts he'd been deep in.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Lily asked, reaching over and touching his arm.

"I can't stop thinking about the werewolves."

Lily frowned. "You don't have to do it, Rey. I know Dumbledore means a great deal to you and he's done such a lot for you, but he's asking something very extreme from you and it's not --"

"No, it's not that, Lily, I mean..." Remus paused. He bit his lower lip and she could see in his eyes he was thinking very, very hard about how to word what might come next. "Last night meant so much to me," he said finally.

Lily nodded, "Me, too. You have no idea how honored I am that you've trusted me with your Furry Little Problem all these years and I've always wanted to be able to be there for you during a transformation. I've always been so jealous of the boys, for getting to be there for you, and I felt so badly that I couldn't be. It meant so much to me, too, Remus."

He moved so he was holding her hand instead of her hand just resting on his arm and he stared into her eyes, "The love and acceptance that you and the lads give me have truly and completely shaped me as a person. Having you in my life -- you lot are the only people who can know the true me, the real Remus, if you will. And I can't imagine what a horribly lonely existence it is for the werewolves who don't have mates like you that can see them for who they are, who love them regardless of their Furry Little Problems."

Lily squeezed his hand.

"Dumbledore said the werewolves are without a leader right now, because of Greyback being weakened. We're human, yes, but the instinct to follow the alpha of a pack is like being a family without a strong parent figure. It's chaos and the responsibility falls on shoulders it ought not to, or else there's a lot of rebellion and infighting and misunderstandings and -- that instability is so horrible. And the group that Greyback's made, he - he's ostracized them from their old lives, torn apart their families and forced them into this group setting that's been thrown into chaos. They don't have anything but each other and the way the Ministry is about werewolves, they don't have any choice but to stay. Stay or else be treated like utter shit, like less than shit. Get locked away and have your name forever put on some list that says you're dirty and worthless." Remus shook his head. 

Lily's eyes were welling with tears at these words, at the idea of what the werewolves went through, and at the tension and frustration that was trickling through her veins, coming from Remus's own emotions as he spoke, the upset building up.

"They need somebody the way I needed the Marauders when I came to Hogwarts, the way I needed you." Remus's eyes met Lily's. "They need a leader - but not a cruel, heartless one like Greyback who uses their pain to accelerate them toward evil... They need someone who gives a flying fuck about them, about their well being, who will defend them and fight for them, someone who won't let You Know Who take advantage of them, who won't allow the Ministry to treat them like rubbish. Someone who will believe in them, the way you lot believed in me." His stare was all the more intense, "They need someone who can tell them they aren't monsters... and see to it that the world doesn't run them down so hard that they become monsters." He paused. "I think they need me."

Lily closed her eyes and bit her lips. Tears slipped over her cheeks. "So what are you going to do, Rey?" she asked, opening her eyes again once she'd gotten control over her emotions.

"I'm not sure, but I think I need to talk to Mr. Scamander and maybe, hopefully, if he's becoming more sentient, Ned Veigler's portrait," Remus answered. "It's not something I can do on a whim, or that will happen overnight, but I think it is something I need to do. And perhaps it isn't precisely what Dumbledore is asking of me."

Lily nodded. "You know that all of us will support you, anyway we can."

He nodded. Then, "Just... don't tell the lads still, alright? I'll tell them when I know what this is, what I'm thinking about doing. I know Sirius will panic, and James will want to get involved and I'm not even sure what the plan is yet, much less how they can help or how to reassure Mr. Overdramatic."

They both looked at the inflatable unicorn that still sat on the coffee table and laughed.

"I won't tell them, Remus," she promised.

As though they'd been waiting on a cue, the fireplace lit up green at that moment, and through the hearth came Dora Potter, followed closely by Minerva McGonagall and Elphinstone Urquart and Lily leaped up to help them dust off and to give them each a hug of greeting, welcoming Dora home and taking her bag of things to bring upstairs.

Remus got up, too, not wanting to appear ill, and greeted them, though he could tell Minnie was worried for him as she cupped her hands 'round his cheeks and asked him how he was doing. He smiled, "I'm well, Minnie, thank you," he said.

"Och, of course yeh are," she said and nodded, releasing him.

Dora stuck her head out the back door and called in her sons and Peter, and soon enough the lot of them were settled down at the dining room table altogether, having a large family dinner for the first time in such a long time, enjoying each other's company and eating the food that Lily had made, cheering one another up and avoiding topics about the war or the Order as much as possible.

Sirius kept checking on Remus, running his palm over Remus's spine because he knew it often hurt day after the moon, and Remus wondered at how lucky he was and it drove home all the more how much those men and women turned by Fenrir Greyback deserved much of the same.

Late that night, Lily lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the things Remus had said - about the werewolves deserving a chance the same as he'd had. She couldn't get it out of her mind, the way Remus had said the love of the Marauders had changed his life story, how he wanted to show the werewolves that they had a choice to move against the evil forces trying to get them to join Voldemort's side of things.

It really was a lot about those sorts of things, wasn't it? Whether someone became evil or not? The way they were raised, the way they were treated, the way they were expected to be, the way they were given reinforcements of their behaviors, and so forth. Something like love, she thought, might really be able to change someone's trajectory from an early age. But could it change something already established? And how deep is one's evil streak that love cannot reach? Was there anyone who could be unaffected by love? If the love was truthful, that is? And was there anyone who had nothing to love about them? However small? 

She absently ran her fingers over a strand of her hair, thinking and thinking and thinking...

That was when James woke up with a great gasp for air, mouth wide open in a silent scream as he rolled quickly to his left side and up to sit on the edge of the bed, his shoulders shaking with the effort to inhale enough oxygen.

Lily sat up, too, "James, honey," she said, reaching for him...

"No, no, not now," he gasped, but she'd already touched his back.